Epistle to Diognetus : THE
CHRISTIAN WAY

OR the Christians
are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language,
nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities
of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life
which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which
they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation
of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the
advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as
well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has
determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to
clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display
to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They
dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens,
they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as
if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native
country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They
marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not
destroy their offspring.